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A. D. 1813-1873. 



A SKETCH 



oy 



CAMDEN CITY, 



NEW JERSEY. 



[f 7 77/ . / rii; }J ' TO B USIjYESS. 



|iij aj!:'ookcv-(fi)n. 



'•'^.^.M^T^^'uCfi^W^ 



CAMDEN. N. J. 

Boiisall & Carse, Federal Street; 

1H73. 

• ■ 



f 



y 



G^ 



60548 

Entered iicrording to Act of Congreax in the year 1873, hy 

,§onsulI tC' Cixrsc, 

/n Mr C/f7A'« Office of the District Court of the United Statea 
for the. District of New Jersey. 



CONTENTS. 



Preface 7 

Dedication 9 

Early Settlement 13 

Threescore Years ago 19 

The Crops 21 

New Item 24 

The Spell of the Potter 26 

Jamie Charcoal 34 

Citizen Browning 45 

Farmer Hatch 47 

Victualler Heyl 50 

Ilichard Fetters 53 

Kaighn's Point Kaighn 59 

Capt. John W. Mickle 63 

Dr. Isaac S. Mulford . 70 

Jesse ^^^ Starr *S: Sons TS 



PREFACE. 

litis " Sketch'' IS harely one in 
chalk, if not in charcoal; the hand, 
however, is that of an eye-witness, who 
Icnoivs whereof he doth testify. 

The sleeping energies of Camden 
need hut a hearty nudge or two to 
aivahen them. Let the next Looker- 
on do his share, and the sluggard 
will at length arise in earnest. 



DEDICATION. 



Gen. George B. Carse, 

United States Army. 

Twelve years ago, when you pressed to 
the front at the call of your country, made 
through its chosen agent, Abraham Lincoln, 
patriot and martyr, you opened a volume of 
new experience which was thus thrust upon 
you. Every parallel of latitude, if not every 
new mile, as you marched southward, pre- 
sented something of change in man and his 
works ; keeping to the common central cha- 
racteristics it is true, but branching into cu- 
rious diversity. There you found — not only 
buried, forgotten, but also undreamed of, 
plain fireside comforts to which you were 



X DEDICATION'. 

born. The love of luxury lingering, nay ram» 
pant there; its means of gratification within 
call yet practically out of reach. A sort of 
general crying for the moon existing, and 
which w^as content to cry on. Until, when 
at length you drove your tent-pins into the 
almost unresisting soil of Florida, and turned 
from the fading sunset to the north star for 
the first time, you might have exclaimed — 
Surely I have passed over much that is hard 
to believe, but never to be forgotten! 

Returned once more to your starting point, 
after a triumph the most signal in all the an- 
nals of war, the habit of improvement which 
you applied abroad, should follow you like 
your shadow in all after life. Wherever you 
pitch your tent, no second winter should 
settle on barren brambles around it; and 
though the soft lawn grass may not spring 
up in the first night, the former sod must be 
broken up and better seed put in, knowing- 
it ^vill be bread some coming day. 

In the ])('ri()(li('al ])vess you liavc^ a power 



DEDICATION. XI 

to affect society greater than that of all the 
artillery in Christendom. Let us hope that 
our battle flags are furled for ever; or, only 
to be spread, in contrast with their former 
use, around the grand triumphal arch on 
which shall be inscribed, " He is most illus- 
trious who is most useful!" 

To assist you humbly but heartily in an 
attempt toward such a consummation, is the 
desire of 

TPIE AUTHOR. 



SKETCH or CAMDEN, 

NEW JERSEY. 
PART FIRST. 



In old Diedrich Knickerbocker's cele- 
brated history of New York, as presented by 
Washington Irving, we find the writer, be- 
fore entering on his obvious task as historian 
of that city, piling up labored statements to 
prove that, first, this world had been created, 
and second, that our hemisphere of it had 
been discovered. I have never been satis- 
fied as to the authorship of that whim ; and 
am still in doubt whether we should credit it 
to the simplicity of the old Dutchman, or 
charge it to the complicity of his waggish 



14 CAMDEN, N. J. 

translator and editor. Either of them was 
equal to its production. But I have formed 
thus much of a conclusion concerning the 
matter that I shall not follow the example 
there set, but shall assume that all the indis- 
pensable prerequisites to my subject (em- 
bracing at least creation and discovery) have 
been secured, and ask my readers to step 
confidently with me upon that silicious pe- 
ninsula, bounded by Cooper's Creek and the 
Delaware River and named Camden, as a 
fixed fact — a terrene axiom not to be dis- 
puted. 

In the war of our Revolution this town 
does not seem to have been distinguished. 
Indeed, Dr. Mulford, in his ample and exact 
" History of New Jersey," fails to name 
Camden once ; but, while in the act of clos- 
ing his classic volume in disappointment if 
not in despair, I found that he had actually 
dated his preface at the very place which 
had been sought for in vain in his text; thus 



CAMDEN, N. J. 15 

making some amends for previous silence by 
lifting up his voice to our purpose, even after 
he had uttered his last word as historian. 

Within the memory of men now living, it 
was usual to speak of the whole territory as 
"the Jerseys;" which plural appellative was 
ever a stumbling block in our early grammar 
exercises. Dr. Mulford, however, removes 
this obstruction with a few touches of his 
fluent pen. 

It seems that quite early in its history, the 
entire tract of country known at present as 
the State of New Jersey, was granted by its 
royal claimant the Duke of York, to John 
Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret, two 
noblemen of wealth and fame, who proceeded 
to divide the same between them ; calling 
the upper portion, or that nearest to New 
York, " East Jersey," and the lower one, 
" West Jersey." Hence, for a century at 
least, it bore something of a duplex standing 
in history; and though the boundary line 



If, CAMDKN, N. J. 

was never critically defined or insisted on, it 
gave excuse for the otherwise odd nomen- 
clature mentioned above. 

Into this lower portion as thus designated, 
some very desirable emigrants soon entered. 
A party of Swedes took up lands near to 
the present Swedesborough ; and farther up 
the Delaware, say between Gloucester and 
Burlington, those friends of peace, the disci- 
ples of George Fox, under the countenance 
of Robert Barclay and William Penn, pre- 
sented their sober array. 

Both of these parties came to cultivate the 
soil, and to eat of the fruit of their labor; and 
to a great extent they succeeded : 

" Along the cool, sequestered vale of life 
They kept the noiseless tenor of their way." 

Nor did this mild ambition pass utterly 
away with t.liem. Tlie fashion of unobtrus- 



CAMDEN, N. J. 17 

ivc usefulness there and then set up is not 
quite banished from its neat farms. The 
drab coat (whose color seemed to have been 
adopted in emulation of that of tlic roadbed) 
has deepened into the soft olive or dark 
brown ; and the sheltering bonnet on mother 
and daughter resists the pinched saucer and 
pattypan of the milliner, and the graceful, 
majestic skirt defies, ay spurns the hideous 
" Grecian bend !" 



CAMDEX, N. J. 19 



THREESCORE YEARS AGO. 

Failing to discover any memorable mention 
of Camden in our Revolutionary era — not a 
single " toot" from Fame's trumpet about 
her, we shall find her peaceful record furnish 
dull materials wherewith to raise a huzzah 
in these piping times of flaunting flags and 
spread eagles. — " It's hard to make a silken 
purse out of a sows ear" say the Scotch : 
even so; but we shall not promise either silk 
or velvet, but say, if there is nothing better, 
there shall be nothing worse than good 
homespun. 

Taking our stand in Clirist Church steeple 
in Philadelphia, about the close of the war 
of 1812, we have a tolerable chuuce for 
getting what artists call a "bird's eye view" 
of the opposite Jersey shore. From above 



20 CA.MDKX, N. ,1. 

the range of Vine street southward to the 
line of the Navy Yard, the river front of 
Camden presented a gentle concave curve 
measuring about two miles. 

This entire region might be said to answer 
to the name of Cooper. Had " Whistling 
Bob" (a noted African oysterman of that day) 
stood beside us, and in his splendid tenor 
voice called out, " Friend Cooper!" at any 
time of day or year, the placable Quaker 
"Anan!" would have come back across the 
broad Delaware most certainly. 

The prevalence of this name in that neigh- 
borhood has often attracted the attention of 
the inquisitive, in the past hundred years. 
\ D' It has been partly explained by the fact that a 
person embraced in Penn's group of original 
settlers actually bore that unostentatious pa- 
tronymic ; but some ingenious etymologists 
on the western shore have insisted on asso- 
ciating it with the unfailing supply of tough 
hoop-poles for which this part of our conti- 
nent was so long celebrated. Whether tlu^ 



CA.VJ)EN, X. J. -Jl 

original Cooper, in noble pride of bis craft, 
planted himself among the hoops, or the 
hoops (by natural " evolution") rose around 
the Cooper, we shall not stop to determine; 
sufficient for us that, in leaving them toge- 
ther, we consider each in good company. 



THE CROPS. 

The landscape here offered to our view 
could hardly be called striking. The primi- 
tive forest marked the horizon a short mile 
distant from the shore. As we looked east- 
ward in winter we thought of pine wood and 
pork; the latter mostly in the "comminuted" 
condition of sausage-meat. In summer, green 
peas, cucumbers, musk-melons, water-melons, 
and sweet potatoes presented their varied 
claims to attention, and were duly honored ; 
though crowned and eventually crowded out 
by that of the incomparable peach, which, at 
the price of a •• ti'pLnin\ -bit a ha' peck" dis- 



22 • CAMDEN, N. J. 

tanced all competition and clearly overcrowed 
all other " cries." 

We step back in plain justice to the ver- 
nacular of that period, to translate into it a 
few of the items above. The melons were 
offered and accepted as " mush-millions" and 
" water-millions," (perhaps owing to the 
number of seeds contained in them;) and 
the cucumbers were known as " cow-comers" 
doubtless because no sensible cow could be 
induced to swallow one of them! 

These varied products of " Jersey sand- 
bank" weri3 brought to market in a style of 
chariot never yet celebrated in song ; indeed 
the only music ever connected with them 
was that of their own creaking wheels, four 
of which were set up and connected in the 
most frugal manner, and on which was laid a 
structure like a carpenter's wcrk-bcnch turn- 
ed upside down; two broad boards h( Id 
])erpendicularly on their edges by hickory 
])ins, forming the sides, and scleral other 



CAMDKX, N. J. 



•28 



boards, ranged flatly between tliese, making 
the bottom of the wagon ; with a front and 
tail-board of the same lowly pattern. These 
bottom boards were not of uniform lenath, 
one or two projecting a foot or more beyond 
the others at the tail-board — evincing the 
hearty contempt of the builder for technical 
niceties, and thus presenting a tempting seat 
to stray boys ambitious of a ride under any 
circumstances. 

The *' moving force" of these vehicles con- 
sisted of a couple of quadrupeds called (by 
courtesy perhaps) horses, whose main dis- 
tinction lay in their difference of color; a 
peculiarity never sufficiently accounted for, 
but so nearly invariable in practice as to 
cause such a piebald team in Pennsylvania 
to be styled a "Jersey match." It has been 
hinted that this contrast of color was intend- 
ed to assist the main parties concerned as to 
the actual count of the cattle; as otherwise 
the owner (from the slight force exerted and 
the moderate allowance of oats provided) 



24 CAMDEN, N, J. 

might be undecided in the estimate of his 
"horse-power." It Avas useful also at the 
ferry, whose rates were almost exclusively 
determined by the number of horses ; the 
load being treated as of secondary import- 
ance, and the driver literally " thrown in" as 
not worth namino; in the estimate ! 



THE NEW ITEM. 

This short catalogue of " marketing" had 
bounded alike the ambition of the farmer and 
the cravings of the citizen for a century. 
We have already glanced at the dark back- 
ground of woods which met us in Jersey. 
Its produce did not rate very high as timber; 
and even as firewood, with plenty of white- 
heart hickory, barren oak and white oak, it 
was far from the level of a staple article in 
trade. But " nothing is made in vain" says 
the proverb; which was found in the fullness 
of tim(> to apply even here. 



CAMDExN, N. J. 25 

About the date of George Washington's 
death, there came to Philadelphia a Scotch- 
man who had been trained to the trade and 
mystery of a " potter" — Abraham Miller by 
name. He proposed to serve the commnnity 
in the particular of family earthenware, and 
he succeeded to the decided satisfaction of 
both parties. He cast his lot for life in Penn's 
city, facing the extremes of its climate in- 
vincibly but not insensibly. He knew well 
that our dinners did not jump upon the table 
without help, nor get that help without hands; 
and in the true spirit of his mother he pitied 
the whole sisterhood of our cooks during the 
months of June, July and August, and in 
their special behalf he contrived a sort of 
fire-clay bucket, as a portable furnace, to be 
heated by charcoal! 



2C) CAMDRN, y. J. 



THE SPELL OF THE POTTER. 

The ancients, on questions of deep mo- 
ment, had a habit of consulting the "birds;" 
had our potter submitted the " constitution- 
ality" of his furnace to the commonwealth of 
crows which, beyond the memory of the 
oldest inhabitant, had roosted in those pines, 
(and those same thieving birds been half as 
wise as they are cunning,) they would liave 
" cawed" back such a protest as would have 
deafened the adventurous Scotchman. But 
he was not one of the ancients. He meant 
to help the Philadelphia cooks, and extend 
his business, and he did not raise any more 
noise about the affair than was necessary. 

Up to this period, that ill-defined territory 
so literally condemned to the shade, had 
stood in our historv mucli as the /ahara does 



c a:\iden, n. j 27 

to the nortlicrn coast of Africa, along which 
fertile margin the vagrant sons of Ishmael 
spread themselves, and tested their indivi- 
dual daring by incursions into the ever-for- 
bidding Desert. And thus, in the graphic 
language of the late Joseph W. Cooper — 
" Early purchasers in our part of Jersey ge- 
nerally bargained for a certain breadth of 
river front, and then were allowed to run 
their lines back into the ' pine-barrens' 
about as far as they had a mind to!'' 

But henceforth mark the change. In the 
grasp of sly Abraham those pine-barrens be- 
came "as clay in the hands of the potter!" 
•At his bidding they did not quite put on 
fl(^sh ; tliey became black diamonds, how- 
ever; and with a little punning privilege, we 
might say, he caused a movement in "Burn- 
'em-Wood" such as neither Shakespear nor 
Macbeth ever dreamed of I The house- 
keepers of Philadelphia showed themselves 
to be of one mind for once, and l)0Ufdit said 



9g CAMDEX. X. .1. 

lurnaces and called for charcoal; and lo, 
from the " vasty deep" of the pines they 
were answered, not by spirits, but by verit- 
able " Carbonari," ready to serve them with 
the one thing needful in the case. 

Thus arose the Jersey charcoal tr^ide ; in- 
troducing an additional item of home pro- 
duce which never asked for protection or 
promotion through the Tariff. No letters- 
patent gave monopoly to the manufacturers, 
who, safe in their native shadows, feared no 
intrusion, and issued into sunshine sure of a 
warm reception. 

It has never transpired as to what pre- 
mium was offered for the best form of vehicle 
for bringing the coal to the consumer. It is 
plain that the one adopted was modeled 
upon the plan of the feed-trough of those 
submissive horses already alluded to; with a 
short piece in the tail-board, or a like hole in 
the side of the wagon, suggested ])y the front 



CAMDEN, N. J. 29 

door of a chicken hous(\ wherein to insinuate 
a shovel for unloading. 

Rude as this business might seem to a 
spectator v/earing white kid gloves, it em- 
braced among its practisers genuine artists in 
the original sense of the word. In filling the 
wagon, the best specimens of well-burnt oak 
were consciously (if not conscientiously) re- 
served for the topping-off layer. Then, the 
whole township was searched for the most 
shrunken specimen of a " barl" to serve as a 
measure; and ever and anon, in filling the 
same, a convenient two-foot piece would 
stick fast at an angle about equally diverse 
from the horizontal and the perpendicular, 
forming a cavernous vacuity that helped to 
pay the ferryage! 

Why are these metaphorical vacillations 
of our charcoal men cited? Merely to scout 
the abominable " monkey" theory now so 
fashionable, as apphVd to tluip. -who. thougli 



30 CAMDEN, N. J. 

coming direct from the fraternity of the 
'possums and woodchucks, presented unde- 
niable credentials of human nature, and thus 
might claim affinity with the rest of the fa- 
family on the Pennsylvania shore, some of 
whose prominent members plied short yard- 
sticks in Second street, or sold stony coffee 
in Market street. Ahem ! 

Within the embrace of the past threescore 
years, a ferry was attempted at the present 
site of Gloucester city, to communicate with 
Greenwich Point opposite ; and doubtless 
several " original invoices" of charcoal thus 
crossed the river, and found entrance to the 
city along the once celebrated Point House 
Road, which picked its level way through 
the marsh, barely a foot above the spring- 
tides, and debouched through Greenwich 
street upon "old" Second street. The main 
supply of the coveted carbon, however, came 
by South street ferry ; at length, emboldened 



CAMDE.V, \. J. ^l 

by the large demand, the wagons ventured to 
climb Market street hill. 

Notwithstanding this outlay of daring, our 
charcoal men found themselves even here 
barely on the verge of their speculative Ca- 
naan. They were familiar with the water's 
edge region only, and the city had already 
become a world of streets and houses. But 
our friend the old potter still watched the 
whole field with the eye of Blucher himself; 
and so he induced the city councils to ap- 
point a locality as a charcoal mart. For this 
purpose they set apart Dock street from the 
place of the old Drawbridge up to the line 
of Second street. This is Penn's sole "serpen- 
tine" street, and these sons of the sandbank 
coiled themselves into it with an alacrity that 
seemed to admit its accordance with their 
own long-accustomed ways! Its width al- 
lowed two or even three wagons to stand 
abreast. In the morning, the tall houses on 
the eastern side warded off the sunshine ; in 



'^2 ; CAMDEN, N. .), 

the afternoon the men hid in the shadow of 
their wagons. It was at once their Rialto 
and their Academic Grove ; where those 
swarthy brethren alternately walked or sat, 
in seeming imitation of the rival schools of 
Plato and Aristotle! 

Besides its appalling extent westward, the 
city stood closely built up on Front street 
and Second street, all the way from the 
Navy Yard up to " Pegg's Eun." Much of 
this tract was too distant to allow its re- 
sidents to run to the Drawbridge for their 
charcoal, and no adventurous merchant had 
as yet the courage to invest in a wagon load, 
with a view to serving his neighbors by re- 
tail. Hence it was hinted that our charcoal 
men should break the monotony of their ex- 
ile by "hawking" their merchandise from 
door to door. A couple of progressive souls 
acting on this suggestion, made a raid up and 
down Second street one day, obtnining fabu- 
lous prices, and oscapinu' safely with their 



CAMDEN, N. J. g|^ 

cash avails to the other side of the Delaware. 
Still the aversion of a Jersey man to turn a 
square corner, or follow even a straight line 
any distance, restricted the trade to narrow 
limits. 

[^^^[This perverse tendency to linear 
aberration^ still haunts Camden, even to its 
latest authorized avenue. About a couple 
of squares seems to be the limit of her right 
lined course. After proceeding that dis- 
tance, the target man instinctively shies off 
to the left or the right, as if he had one day 
sold a short barrel of charcoal to some one 
living right ahead!] 



34: CAMDEX, N, J. 



JAMIE CHARCOAL. 

At length a very Joshua appeared, whose 
appointed mission seemed to be to lead the 
charcoal men clear through the Promised 
Land. He came in the shape of a five-foot 
high blacksmith, from the north of Ireland, 
James was his baptismal name, and in his 
first day's service, as pioneer of Jerseymen, 
he was surnamed " charcoal," which stuck to 
him henceforth through life. 

Jamie Charcoal had a most progressive 
dislike of hard work; but he knew all about 
coal, and could find any spot in Philadelphia 
either by day or night. So he offered his 
services at the charcoal exchange in the 
mixed capacity of usher and supercarg-o, to 



CAMDEN, N. J. 35 

the dingy custodians of this new summer 
fuel, who, after crossing the Rubicon of the 
Delaware, were still halting on the threshold 
of their fortunes. The bargain was soon 
struck, and a change followed. 



Jamie armed himself with a tin trumpet, 
and at each street corner, and at varying in- 
tervals in our long squares, he gave a blast 
that secured attention from great and small, 
followed by the cry of " char-r-r-coal," to 
which was added a couplet or two of doggerel 
song, setting forth its virtues and its cheap- 
ness. 

For the time, the stolid city seemed to 
wake up. The good housewives learned to 
know Jamie, not only at first sight, but even 
before they saw him ; they heard his clarion 
announcement, and got the alley gate or 
cellar door open in advance. In lact the 
enterprise might be said to run through the 
town like the literal wildfire of its commodity 



36 CAMDEN, N. J. 

when kindled under the pot. Miller sold his 
furnaces, and the favored wagoners whom 
Jamie took in tow, sold out their entire 
cargoes by noon, in time to deposit their 
cash before the bank closed. And our hero 
found himself rapidly dividing public fame 
and favor, with even General Jackson and 
Colonel Pluck. 

But here we might well fall back upon 
Robert Burns's warning about the " best laid 
schemes o' mice an' men." It came to pass 
that our trumpeter, in his indiscriminate en- 
thusiasm, waked up more than his customers. 
There proved to be in Philadelphia divers 
men, and even women, whose chief business 
in life was to eat their irieals; and how 
these were produced or earned (much less 
cooked) was knowledge too mighty for them! 
Whether a cook was roasted each day along 
with the dinner, they neither knew nor 
cared ; sufficient for them to find a succession 
of both as time rolled on. These were just 



CA.\I[)E>J, N, J. 37 

the people also to sleep late in the morning, 
and take a nap after dinner; and Jamie's 
hearty summons was to them a real startling 
reproach; it spoke of life and usefulness 
abroad entirely above their level — a standard 
of true stature entirely beyond their lazy 
stretch. 

There were others, too — the quiet and the 
sick, whom this tin music really afflicted ; 
none more than our worthy drab colored 
Friends, who always associate the sound of 
the trumpet with a scarlet coat if not with 
blood. The furnace maker also was of peace- 
ful temper, and declined the assistance of the 
noise; and complaint was made to the city 
authorities, and an ordinance was duly pre- 
pared, in the most approved circumlocution 
of the official legal scribe, and passed, for- 
bidding the nuisance. 

Of this proceeding Jamie was made ac- 
quainted, and after scleral warnings by more 



3^^ CAMDEX, N. J. 



than one constable, he was at length arrested 
and taken before the mayor. 



The sturdy culprit made no boggling in 
the matter, such as pleading not guilty. He 
was taken flagrante delicto, and marched 
into court with his trumpet stuck in his 
ample breeches' pocket, somewhat in the 
style of a dress sword. 

" James," said the judge, " I am sorry to 
see you here. Why do you raise this noise"?" 



" Plase yer honor," answered Jamie, "just 
let the wimmin 
wid the coal sure!" 



to let the wimmin know that we are coming 



" But you know it is against the law, and 
it disturbs the whole town," rejoined the 



magistrate. 



Jamie was of the true blue Presbyterian 
church whose members always have a Scrip- 



CAMDEN, N. J. .-^y 

tuve text or inference at hand ; and in a 
sharp tone he half answered, half inquired — 

"An' if my little hor-r-n plagues 'em so, 
how will they stand the last great trumpet?" 

And he stared earnestly at the judge, his 
red nose projecting between his sooty cheeks 
like the bill of a poker just drawn from an 
anthracite fire. 

The magistrate was one who brought to 
the bench that impressive sort of " weight" 
which was so highly prized among the early 
Dutch aldermen of New York, and Jamie's 
reply (which might be characterized as both 
pertinent and pert) seemed to move him 
almost off his cushion. He rolled towards 
the accused with something of the cumbrous 
grace of a mammoth walrus on a mud bank, 
and in a kindly tone counselled him to lay 
by his horn. He must fine him, he said, but 



40 CAMDEN, N. J. 

he named the lowest sum possible under the 
indictment. 

Jamie would have swallowed almost any 
given amount of good advice, that being an 
article which was as familiar to him as his 
old mother's face ; but this appeal to his 
purse presented a dose against which both 
head and stomach revolted. 

" And must I pay the money, yer honorV 
asked he. 

" Yes, here and now," said the magistrate, 
sternly. 

Slowly he drew out that grimy buckskin 
pouch, the invariable companion of his race, 
which opens to receive money as easily as a 
roasted oyster does to the knife, but which 
snaps shut upon its prey with the angry vi- 
gor of the trigger of a revolver! 



CAMDEN, N. J, ^l 

He paid his fine and went his way for the 
time, quieted for once ; while his Honor ad- 
journed the court; the assembly retiring 
with un-vvonted gravity, evidently impressed 
with the charcoal man's allusion to the great 
final assize — that tribunal to which so few 
lawyers are apt to appeal! 

In a few days, however, our irrepressible 
trader was heard from afresh. He had bar- 
tered off his trumpet, with some of his black 
diamonds to boot, for a hand-bell, and he 
rang all the changes possible thereon through 
court and alley, and shouted charcoal afresh 
to the alternate delight and dismay of his 
hearers. Now not one disciple of the realm 
of " red tape," would assert that a statute 
drawn against a horn would be effective 
against a bell ; so the routine of petition and 
remonstrance had to be travelled anew, while 
Jamie like a comet was flying around in his 
eccentric orbit, leaving his pursuers hope- 
lessly beliind! 
6 



4'2 '■• CJAMDEN', N. J. 

But there were opposing forces at work on 
the side of" peace and quietness which the 
prosecuting- attorney never dreamed of. 

Blacksmiths are proverbial for the lodge- 
ment of a " spark in the throat;" and Jamie 
was too spirited a craftsmnn to blink any of 
the staple requirements of his trade. He 
also had a remarkably keen recollection of 
every tavern he had ever visited, and a talent 
at new discoveries in the same longitude that 
would have been invaluable to either Mungo 
Park or Dr. Livingstone. To change the 
figure a little, we might say that he was like 
certain avaricious sailing masters, who some- 
times pile on more cargo than they can bring 
safely to port. And thus it would come to 
pass, that the pilot of the morning occasion- 
ally stood sadly in need himself of a guide 
before sunset. This gave rise to sundry 
disputes about commissions and salvage; the 
Jerseymen contending that if Jamie charged 
for steering them out, it was worth some- 



CAMUEN', N. J. 43 

thing to tow him home! Besides, after se- 
veral seasons' training, the wagoners became 
able to find their own way through town ; 
and to pay for anything which they could get 
for nothing, was no trait of theirs. Thus, 
our once sturdy pioneer found his occupation 
decline. Even the sun must set as well as 
rise ; so he slipped gently down life's western 
slope, and joined the great "unreturning ca- 
ravan." But a bell like his own is still 
tinkling while I write, over the remains of 
the charcoal trade in the streets of Pliila- 
delpliia. 



ADDITIONAL NAMES. 

FELLOWS AND FOLLOWERS OF THE COOPERS. 

Within our allotted limits of time and 
space, besides (and by the side of) the ubi- 
quitous Cooper, a few other names quietly 
present themselves, not asking but deserving 
notice : — Browning, Hatch, Heyl, Fetters, 
Kaighn, Mickle, Mulford. 



CITIZEN BROWNING • 

Established a public house and ferry near 
the foot of the present Market street, but its 
" slip" must have stood a thousand feet in- 
land from the ample landing- of the West 



4:6 CAMDEN, N. J. 

Jersey Ferry Company now succeeding it. 
The boats (of horse or steam-power) varied 
their place of arrival on the Philadelphia 
side, between Poplar street and Arch street. 

Mr. Browning also cultivated a clever 
truck farm situated a short distance up the 
famous Cooper's Creek. The ferry house 
was considered commodious and well-kept 
for the times, and the shady garden attached 
was much resorted to in warm weather by 
residents of the hot, red brick city opposite. 

The present ferry company (West Jersey) 
was mainly founded by his children, who, 
numerous and well known, hold a marked 
standing in the present generation. 



(JAMDEX, N. J 47 



FAEMER HATCH. 

This sturdy truckman had made a lodge- 
ment on one of the most desirable tracts of 
land embraced in Camden limits. His farm 
occupied the southern shore of the wide 
channel of the Delaware river, opposite to 
Petty's Island, running from the eastern line 
of the Cooper's Point farm to the mouth of 
Cooper's Creek, and embracing its western 
shore for a short distance. 

Its entire water front was covered with 
comparatively large trees, and at the mouth 
of the creek and adjacent thereto was an ex- 
tensive flat, submerged in winter but covered 
with reeds or wild rice in late summer. Va- 
rious native game abounded there ; em- 
bracing in autumn Reed Birds, Swamp Black 
Birds, and even River Ducks, and in winter 



48 CAMDEN, N. J. 

robins and squirrels. These attracted hoards 
of sportsmen who, starting with the general 
assumption of being in a free country, and 
enlarging their privileges thus inferred to li- 
mits almost undefined, they annoyed the 
whole region. This intrusion was resisted 
most ferociously by farmer Hatch. He kept 
quite a garrison of fierce dogs, and did not 
hesitate to " bear arms," not only in self-de- 
fence, but in clearing his territory of tres- 
passers. 

The regular navigation of the creek was 
confined to the passage of a few market 
boats bringing produce from the farms lying 
up the stream; and, thus threatened and de- 
fended, the mouth of Cooper's Creek was 
almost as unknown to the general traveller 
as the mouth of the Niger! 

Under the depredations of the gunners thus 
alluded to, a statute was enacted forfeiting 
the firearms of all such intruders on private 



CAMDEN, N. J. 4C) 

property ; and the rude assertion of this pe- 
nalty caused the death of a son of the suhject 
of this article, less than twenty years ago. 

This farm is now hounded southerly by 
quite a miniature village of neat dwellings, 
put up in connexion with a large woollen 
mill, to accommodate the hands there em- 
ployed. This factory has a side front on 
State street, and a fine wharf and eastern 
front on Cooper's Creek; it stands on an 
eminence — a " bluff " in fact, and, compared 
with the usual level of the country, holds a 
most eligible position. 



50 CAMDKN, N. J. 



VTC'TUALT.ER HEYL. 

Whoever frequented the market house ex- 
tending from Front street to Second street, 
in the middle of Market street, Philadelphia, 
at the times now under remembrance, must 
have noted the fine array of fixtures and 
goods of the celebrated pork dealer Heyl of 
Camden. Embracing a long array of cedar 
tubs painted blue and lettered "Heyl" in red 
capitals. 

What Hudibras's " Talgol" was among 
the beeves, surely stout neighbor Heyl was 
among the swine. Pork in all its varied 
phases — from the whole carcass to the finely 
chopped fat and lean meat stuffed in trans- 
parent casings and linked together by the 



CAMDEN, N. J. 5-^ 

yard, was displayed on his capacions stalls ; 
along- with finest leaf lard in corn-husk 
wrappers, and the softer article in metal 
buckets. 

The genuine " Jersey sausage" was a fa- 
vorite item at Philadelphia winter breakfasts; 
and was distinguished both for quality and 
style. The meat was good pork, seasoned 
principally with fine garden sage, and stuffed 
in the narrow intestines of the sheep ; thus, 
from their smaller diameter, they cooked 
more readily than the thicker " butcher" ar- 
ticle, and had a tasteful, lady-finger look. 

His extensive "works" stood about on the 
line of the present Market street, Camden ; 
whence his sterling stock was sent almost 
daily across the river ; in severe frost using 
even a sleigh for trans})ort. 

.is a judge of meat, and a skilful handler 
of the same, Mr. Heyl had scarcely an equal. 



52 CAMDKN, N, J. 

His movements at the stall were so apt and 
easy as to be really graceful. He did not 
wear the full frock of the profession, but had 
the whitest of aprons, and over-sleeves drawn 
on his brown coat, and buttoned at the wrist. 

In later years a large pleasure garden was 
established by some of his descendants, oc- 
cupying several acres of ground near the 
centre of the city, which became quite a po- 
pular resort. 



CAMDEN, X. J. 53 



RICHAKD FETTERS. 

Strolling southward toward the old limits 
of the town-plot, we come upon what seems 
to he almost a distinct settlement. The sur- 
face is hardly above the high- water level of 
the Delaware, and its tenem3nts and town 
lots vary in size and shape, as if intended to 
suit all applicants for the same — in fact to be 
so accommodating as to leave but scanty ac- 
commodations when put to the test. 

This stray hamlet is known as " Fetters- 
ville," introducing to us the citizen whose 
name heads the present article; and whose 
rise and progress may well be associated with 
tliat of Camden. 

Born to the noble inheritance, and tlie still 
nobler habits, of useful iiuhistiy. he sc^rved a 



54 CAMDEN, N. J. 

long- apprenticeship to several laborious avo- 
cations; settling eventually upon that of a 
gardener and florist. He evidently had a 
natural talent for the cultivation of plants, 
and the same cheapness of soil which enabled 
him to cover a large surface at small cost, 
gave ample yards to his neighbors, among 
whom his flower crops found ready sale. He 
also sent some of his rare specimens to the 
" city," as Philadelphia was invariably de- 
signated. 

His habits were as frugal as Stephen 
Girard's; and his general history, though 
stretching over a smaller sphere, reads much 
like that of the great merchant. 

This village of Fettersville arose in this 
wise. The level of tlie land was low, and the 
cost of the property to him was proportioned 
accordingly. It lay comparatively adjacent 
to the lower feiry which sent its boats to 



(JAM DION, N. J. ;55 

South street, Philadelphia, tlirou<^]! wliioh 
intercourse the region became known. 



Now Richard Avas not restricted in his 
dealings by narrow views about either the 
clime or complexion of purchasers; and a 
number of colored persons bought town lots 
in his tract, and " improved" the same in a 
style w^hich rather strained the literal mean- 
ing of that promising word. But an acre of 
ground " cut up" to better account in this 
way, than when laid out in market truck ; 
and the humble African here got something 
of a humble home, safe from the oppression 
and contamination of white-faced neighbors 
on the Pennsylvania side of the river, whose 
inner surface was blacker than his own ! 

Thus both " the parties of the first part," 
as the conveyancers have it, seemed satisfied, 
and left those who might follow them, either 
to "fall in and keep step," or keep their 
distance. 



;55 CAMDEN, N. J. 

In latter years Richard rose to civic hon- 
ors and weight though small in stature. x\s 
school director and bank director he served 
with fidelity if not with dignity. His latest 
mansion, with its wreath of '• Wistaria," sets 
a sound example to the neighborhood, of a 
comfortable dwelling; and the sale of his 
large collection of plants went far to give 
him a fragrant remembrance. 



His acquirements in " book learning" were 
but moderate; his main choice of reading 
keeping in the botanical line. Sometimes 
the classical name of a plant cost him more 
effort to ascertain and pronounce, than the 
propagation of forty layers or seedlings from 
the same ; but when the coveted orthography 
and prosody were at last attained, even the 
cash price of the article seemed secondary to 
these for a time; visiters of the greenhouse 
and garden being dosed with the mangled 
Greek, whether they bought the plant, or 
bowed themselves out of hearing. 



('AMDKN, N. J. 57 

His inexpensive habits of living have been 
already alluded to. His chosen costume was 
that of a working man, preferring a style of 
clothing which nearly defied the worst of 
weather. After his wealtli had actually 
thrust public trust upon him, some laughable 
instances occurred of candidates mistaking 
Richard for his latest wheelbarrow man. 

Among them we may mention the case of 
an aspirant for a place to the acquisition of 
which the old florist's vote was indispens- 
able. He was sought at home and at the 
court-house, and was at length tracked into 
his nursery. The young gentleman in broad- 
cloth inquired of the first person he met — 

" Is this Mr. Fetters 's placed ' 

" Yes," answered a small man half covered 
with compost. 

" Is he in?" proceeded the inquirer. 

"He is," replied the same imperturbable 
man of clay. 

8 



58 CAMDEN, N. J. 

" Can I see him?" added the anxious can- 
didate. 

"Guess you'll hardly have a better chance," 
replied Richard, " for I'm him — but you'll 
have to wait till I finish potting these here 
jewranyinn s! 

Adieu, old knig-ht of the spade and rose- 
tree! Among his generation, v/e might say, 
" many worse, bettor few" than he. 



CAMDEN, N. J. .")f) 



KAIGHN'8 POINT KAIGHN. 

On the sunward boundary of the town 
which we are surveying historically, just on 
the southern horn of that crescent which we 
drew topographically on its front at the out- 
set — a name appears of rather occult ortho- 
graphy, viz. Kaighn, and pronounced most 
.suspiciously like that of the fugitive son of 
Adam! 

The immediate date of his advent has not 
been found, but traces of his presence can be 
identified within tlie past century, Kaighn's 
Point soon became the point aimed at by ex- 
plorers from old Southwark and the lower 
p;irt of tlie city })roper, who had the courage 



50 CAMDEN, N. J. 

or curiosity to cross the Delaware in search 
of "fresh fields and pastures new." 

Sandy and sunburnt the country spread 
around in summer, drinking greedily all the 
crystal tribute of the sky, from the smallest 
dew drop to the plunging globules of the 
northwest thundergust. And in winter, as 
Campbell says of Hohenlinden, " all bound- 
less lay the untrodden snow," occasionally 
broken by the track of a wood sled, as the 
grounds near the " point" were sometimes 
used as a depot for firewood, which, when 
the river became frozen sufficiently firm, was 
carried across on light sleds to the Southwark 
landings, especially to that at foot of Almond 
street. 

A couple of venerable two-story dwelling-s 
stood on the line of the river road (the pre- 
sent Second street,) having two or three 
very large box-wood trees and two dwarf 
yew trees in front of tliem. The trees wen^ 



CAMDEN, N. J Ql 

acknowledged as the oldest " living inhabit- 
ants" of the region, at the beginning of the 
current century, and how far backward from 
that time their birth or planting dated, even 
tradition is silent. 

The present " avenue" ran eastwardly not 
above one-third of a mile, in a tolerably right 
line, but following the invariable "bent" of 
Camden surveys, it then deflected as old 
Brace Road, to the only bridge over Cooper's 
Creek. About twenty-five years ago, by a 
most notable stroke of courage, this avenue 
(or Main Street then called) was opened 
eastward, and entered the Haddonfield turn- 
pike road just at its first toll-gate from Cam- 
den. This should have added perceptibly to 
the business of the ferry, whose position di- 
rectly opposite to the Philadelphia Navy 
Yard, with a channel unobstructed by island 
or shoal, surpasses in natural advantages any 
other thus far established. 



(32 CAMDEN, N. J. 

As early as 1816, a steamboat plied from 
foot of South street, Philadelphia, to said 
Kaighn's Point; where several members of 
the original family were settled; having 
dwellings mostly situated upon Main street, 
with gardens of liberal dimensions attached. 

The commercial advantages of this old 
centre of intercourse, have not been thus far 
recognised. 



CAMDEN, N. J. ^^i^ 



Capt. JOHN WHITALL MICKLE. 

Between Kaighn's Point and Gloucester, a 
large and (for a long time) well kept farm, 
brought before the traveller the name of 
Captain Mickle. 

His ancestors were decided members of 
Friends' Meeting; but if our subject was 
counted in that communion from birth, he 
must have " leaped the wall" when quite 
young ; for we find him of the party of the 
war of 1812. 

He chose seafaring as a profession, making 
various voyages on the Atlantic ocean. And 
among his adventures there was one con- 
necting him with an attempt to liberate 
Napoleon Bonaparte from liis iin])ris(jiiinent 



{J4 CAMDEN, N. J. 

on the island of St. Helena. This stirring 
event was never elaborated into intelli- 
gible narrative, nor even put upon record by 
the only one who knew all the facts. 

The dethroned emperor died in 1820. 
How long after that event our captain deter- 
mined to cast anchor on dry land, and furled 
his sales permanently, cannot now be ascer- 
tained ; but more than forty years ago, when 
Camden was chosen as the southern terminus 
of the great rail road between Philadelphia 
and New York, we find him at the front and 
ready for service. 

He chose his permanent residence in the 
centre of Camden, and became at once active 
in the great enterprise which thus rolled in 
upon that hitherto sequestered town almost 
like the eruption of a volcano. The proposal 
to make the journey from Philadelphia to 
New York in the same daylight, sounded 
like a revival of the dreams of Oliver Evans, 



CAMDEN, N. J. (j^ 

the steam enthusiast of a former a<>e ; but 
the daring of the attempt alone was sufficient 
to beckon Captain Mickle towards it. What- 
ever his aspirations may have been as a 
sailor, he seems to have laid them all aside 
from this time forward. 

In neighborly intercourse he was rather 
kindly disposed — easily moved at the sorrows 
of the poor, and comparatively willing to as- 
sist in relieving such. In business his man- 
ners were ungracious, to say the least ; he 
seemed to speak always as from the quarter- 
deck, and permitted no appeal from his 
decisions, allotting neither time nor space for 
the opinions of others. But his duty, as far 
as he understood it, was most scrupulously 
performed; turning back from no proper risk 
or responsibility. 

He admitted his fellowship with the "Free 
Thinkers;" yet he more than once helped 
a church witli monev. Passing as one '• witli 



55 ("AMIM^X. N. J. 

small belief encumbered," yet he had more 
than one anchor that never dragged. He 
believed steadfastly in General Jackson, the 
Camden and Amboy Rail Road, and the 
Philadelphia and Camden Ferry Company ; 
and somewhere within the points of this tri- 
angle he was ahvays to be found. City, state, 
and national politics were all driven into this 
enclosure, like sheep into a fold, and fattened, 
and fleeced, and slaughtered, according to 
the demands of the ruling powers there. 

This ferry company was charged with the 
conveyance across the Delaware, of the pas- 
sengers and freight of the various rail road 
trains running between Philadelphia and 
New York. In seasons of severe frost, this 
was a hard service for the ferry boats of the 
size then prevalent. The captain had not 
studied marine architecture in due form ; 
but he planned and superintended the build- 
ing of the " Dido," a ftn-ry boat which for 
twenty years surpassed in good service any 



CAMDE>\ X. J. (^1 

otlior boat on the Delaware. And certainly, 
as director of the rail road and president of 
the ferry company, "we ne'er shall look 
upon his like again." 

Some seventeen years ago, a small, weak 
l)oat (the New Jersey) was burnt on her <^'>^"^-v ' 
passage across the river, and a number of ' 

persons lost their lives thereby. Botli sides 
of the river condemned the carelessness in- 
volved in the catastrophe, and the company 
was cited by the coroner, and complaint was 
also lodged in the criminal court of Camden, 
• and Captain Mickle was summoned to the 
stand. 

He admitted that the unfortunate boat 
belonged to his company ; but he insisted 
that she was sound and seaworthy in form 
and in fact ; and concluded by averring that 
" she was a better boat the night she was 
burnt^ than she was the day she was 
launciiedl" 

* : , '■• ' ^..<^ /^^^. ut^ f^^'^^- 



58 CAMDEN, N. J. 

This formed rather an advance over any- 
thino^ like lec^al testimonv hitherto offered in 
New Jersey. However it might bear on the 
particular case which drew it out, the gene- 
ral conclusion was, that hereafter, if any 
exigency arose for " swearing a case through 
a stone wall," Captain Micklo would be a 
likely man to lead the way. 

But we must not forget that, when there 
was no such thing as getting a hearty drink 
of good water in Camden, Captain Mickle 
sunk an artesian well at his own expense, 
and made its bright crystal free to all well- 
behaved comers. 

And, more than all — when the stars and 
the stripes were shot down from Fort Sumter, 
Captain Mickle presided at the town meet- 
ing in Camden, and in his short, blunt ad- 
dress he said — 

" The news is, that they hav(^ shot down 



CA.MDEN, N. J. 



69 



our flag from the United States fort at South 
Carolina. Now you see that flag has got to 
go up again!" 

As true a prophet as patriot, let this be his 
epitaph I 



70 CAMDEN, N, J. 



Dr. ISAAC S. MULFORD. 

In passing np Federal street from the 
river, standing full a hundred feet from 
the line of the street, is a large, plain brick 
mansion. It is the former home, and was 
for a long time the residence, of Dr. Mulford 
of Camden. Its style is that of seventy- 
years ago ; all its features are harmonious — 
so much so, that any thoughtful person facing 
the edifice, will seem to hear or to see an ap- 
peal from the past. 

Dr. Mulford was brother-in-law to Captain 
Mickle, but they did not associate much. 
The former was the opposite, indeed the an- 
tipode of the latter; he was silent, thought- 
ful, and almost austere in aspect. He could 



CAMOEN', N. J, -yi 

recollect Camden when he mif^-lit liave count- 
ed all its commodious houses Tipon his ten 
fingers; and he walked along its lengthening 
streets to the last, with the same deliberate 
step as he did threescore years ago. 

As physician and druggist he must have 
come in contact with the residents of the 
whole settlement, and of much of the sur- 
rounding country. His pale, unimpassioned 
face was familiar at almost every bedside ; 
his low, calm voice was that of a friend in 
need. His long white fingers seemed made 
to feel the pulse, and in tlu^ words of Samuel 
Johnson, he exhibited " the power of art 
without the show." 

In middle life the Dr. joined the society of 
Friends, leaving the severe creed of Calvin for 
the milder one of Fox. But, as Milton said 
of himself, " I change my sky but not my 
mind when I cross tlie sea," so the Dr. carried 
his coat unchana'ed in color into tlie new 



72 CAMDKN, N. J. 

fraternity, sitting in meeting and walking by 
the way as the "Quaker in black." 

His practice as a physician was gradually 
handed over to younger aspirants, and his 
closing service is that of historian of New 
Jersey. His patience and faithfulness ad- 
mirably qualified him for the task, and he 
has fulfilled every reasonable requirement of 
the same. 



SKETCH OF (WMDF.N, 

NEW JERSEY. 
PART SECOND. 



The observant traveller from Europe, (or 
indeed from any part of tlie slowly-ehanging- 
old hemisphere.) who arrives in Chicago, 
with correct information furnished him of its 
age and history — will be astonished, if not 
stunned by the bare evidence laid before his 
senses. Streets of palaces are there; temples 
of trade, where Mammon himself seems sur- 
feited; hixurious dwellings, in whose patcli 
of unbuilt garden surface the almost warm 
footprints of the buffalo and wild hog may be 
found ! Tlie dreams of Aladdin liardened 
into arcliitectural granite. 
10 



74 c.niDKN", X. J. 

Passing- to some other prominent points 
embraced in our web of railways, let oiiv 
visiter at leni^th roll eastward through Penn- 
sylvania, and after fighting his angular way 
through Philadelphia's red labyrinth, lot 
him " ferry" himself to Camden, N. J. 
There he will find a level area, within 
easy rifle range of the largest territorial city 
of the world, (and which was once the na- 
tional capital and still is its true metropolis) 
with scarcely a safe landing at its Delaware 
front, and with two-thirds of its surface still 
cohered with sandburrs or spatterdocks! He 
will find here nearly enough of stagnancy to 
restore his equilibrium of progress. 

If we wonder how some of our western 
wilds have dashed forward into towns and 
cities in a few years, we may ec[ually wonder 
how through a full century Camden has man- 
ao(>d to stand still. 



.Something' of an excuse for this sluggish- 



CAMDEX, N. J. 75 



iicss lias been sought in her water boundary, 
(Uviding- her from the towering city of Pcnn; 
but Brooklyn is also water bounded, and her 
territory is actually an island; she is now, 
however, determined to have a bridge cost 
what it may. 

But to borroA\' calm counsel from the most 
passionate people on earth — " let byganes he 
byganes" in this matter. Leaving the torpor 
of one hundred and fifty years to bur} its 
own dead, let us see what may be done to- 
day and to-morrow in the wav of sensible 
advance. 

Camden territory is a peninsula of nearly 
uniform width, bounded principally by the 
DelaAvare river and Cooper's creek. The 
ibrmer is one of the finest rivers of this con- 
tinent, and its widest channel at this spot is 
on the Camden side. The most extensive 
iinpr(n-emc nt on this front is that of the 
Caiiid n and Ambov Rail Road, and consists 



75 CA.MDliX, X. J. 

of tracks and stabling for locomotives, and 
slips for shipment of burden trains. These 
erections are thus for special nse, and present 
no accommodations to general commerce. 
Farther south are the wharf and dock of the 
" Dredging Company," also tied up to special 
service; and towards Kaighn's Point is the 
fine property of Starr, Brothers, which is 
slowly getting into usable condition. The 
only complete landing (embracing wharves 
and docks) for general business, is that of 
Messrs. John F. Starr and Son, at loot of 
Market street. 

The various ferries arc not of course pub- 
lic landings, though tliey are certainly public 
conveniences of the first order; and the ship- 
yard at Cooper's Point, has also it^ own re- 
stricted functions. 

The greater part of tlie northern front has 
a fine elevation for dv/ellings, and sliould 
]la^•(• been kept as a '' iiortli (^nd terrace" for 



CAMDEN, N. J t t 



beautiful mansions in harmony with tho phin 
of State street. But good natured '-Joe 
Cooper" sokl any one a lot for any thing, and 
tlius its real advantages have been marred. 

The eastern boundary is by Cooper's 
Creek ; and this remains, if not rightly ap- 
propriated, at least to a great extent unper- 
verted. 

This ''Creek" would count as quite a river 
in densely-populated Europe. Its navigable 
extent must be nearly ten miles. Its course 
is undeniably "sinuous," but its depth is 
comparatively uniform and sufficient for 
floating very heavy freight, with a channel a 
hundred feet wide. On each side of it are 
large tracts of fertile meadow, now much ne- 
glected, but capable of profitable cultivation 
by good embankments, or by improvement 
in other ways. 

It is plain that this region marks the m-d- 



7y CAMDEN, N. J. 

nufacturiiig front of Camden, where lies un- 
developed wealth by millions. Assurances 
like these are so easily made — these things 
called " ciphers" so readily fill up a dazzling 
line, that we offer to try in this closing page 
to see liow far history will fortify our pro- 
phecy. 

JESSE W. STAllR & SONS. 

On the right hand bank of this creek, as 
you travel upwards, may be found the iron 
works of Jesse W. Starr and Sons. The ori- 
ginal ])lot occupied by this firm contained 
about eleven acres, and is still tlie area in 
actual use ; and tlie changes already devel- 
oped on this former little truck farm, deserve 
mention. Sixty years ago its best results 
might have " fed and clothed" a family of 
four on this wise. By unremitting labor that 
hardly noted the flight of time except by the 
extremes of heat and cold, a fare of rye bread 
and molasses, mitigated by sweet potatoes 
and hot-corn. Mas f>\torted. and at times ex- 



cami)i:v, n. j. 



79 



tended to a grudging addition of stiingy pork, 
a portion of which latter was bartered off for 
linsey woolsey clothing. While at our pre- 
sent view, some five hundred and fiftjj 
families have a comfortahlo living out of those 
same eleven acres! 

The firm is composed of Jesse W. Starr, 
Benjamin A. Starr, and Benjamin F. Archer. 
The business is that of an extensive iron 
Foundry, where some of the largest and many 
of the best cast iron pipes of tlie country have 
been made ; using at present six cupohi fur- 
naces. The property includes the entire 
surface of marsh down t(^ the county l)ridge, 
where the Camden and Amboy Company Inn'e 
just laid two tracks of rails for the accommo- 
dation of these works. The capacity of the 
whole creek region is fairly indicated in this 
single instance. Mr. Starr is a thorough mas- 
ter of his business and has devoted his whole 
energies to its prosecution. In this state- 
ment we present merely a literal fact; an iron 



y{) cam;)kn, X. J. 

one indeed, in all its strength b-it not with its 
usual harshness. 

Returning from the works, as we cross the 
Haddonfield road, we come upon a triangular 
garden embracing the mansion of Mr. J. W. 
Starr. This garden is enclosed by the finest 
" live fence" (a hedge of Osage orange) in 
America, and contains in its seven acres of 
flowers and fruit enough of peaceful beauty 
to make any good judge who enters it, say 
with Sancho Panza, that he fain would stay 
there longer than he is able! 

The entire establishment presents a speci- 
men of American life fit for the severest 
scrutiny : courageous industry busy to useful 
ends, radiating from and returning to a com- 
fortable, delightful home. Long may the 
example and the exemplar remain among us! 



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